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Bitcoin [BTC] gives people a way to communicate and do things outside of central institutions, says Overstock CEO

Patrick Byrne, CEO of Overstock spoke about the regulation of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, in an interview with Noami Brockwell on Youtube.

The CEO started off by saying that he is concerned about the threats the country might face. He went on to speak about KYC and AML, which is currently being implemented by most of the leading exchange platforms. He stated that these policies are not meant to be “scoffed at”. Byrne further added that these policies were put in place in order to catch criminals. He said:

“We can take blockchain to the point where it really becomes anonymous. If you do that, there is going to be a lot of criminals and dangerous kind of people […] could e used for by bad actors to evade legitimate law enforcement”

Byrne further stated that he “loves” the idea of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies being decentralized and anonymous. However, he does not want people like Kim Jong-un being able to move money around the world without being spotted because of his bad intentions.

The CEO further spoke about whether the governments are becoming progressively worse as they get control over more technology. He also spoke about blockchain technology being used by governments for bad purposes.

He said there will be government surveillance as the world gets more digitized. Byrne added:

“We crypto anarchists want to remake society out of this technology. Is that going to work? Can we have an authoritarian state [China] own the underlying technology? That scares the hell out of me. If the underlying technology to our crypto revolution is made in China, it means ultimately Xi Jinping contrails the world”

Byrne went on to speak about the main barriers Bitcoin is facing to gain mainstream adoption, whether it was social barriers, technology or government barriers. He said that there is indeed social barriers, which are currently in the way of Bitcoin’s mainstream adoption. The most common stigma of the cryptocurrency is that people believe that it used for ecstasy or other drugs dealing, he said, however, the US dollar is also used for the same purpose.

In the government’s point of view, the CEO stated that they are “getting comfortable” with Bitcoin. He added that the western governments have started to understand that Bitcoin cannot be stopped. However, in authoritarian countries such as China have understood that if Bitcoin is not stopped now, then within ten years, it would be the end of their regime. Byrne added:

“So they have done a lot in the last nine months to it [Bitcoin]. They understand the power of blockchain but I think they’re quite afraid of the cryptocurrency movement. It gives people a way to communicate and do things outside of central institutions.”